Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hello fellow librarians,

I've scoured the librarian manual on author names and haven't found a policy for a couple of specific cases.

A non-goodreads author who displays their name on the cover of their books in different ways.

Two specific cases:

1. Wm. Paul Young

On most of his books he displays his name as above. His website, facebook, insta etc all have the above spelling. However on a very select few of his books his name is displayed as W. Paul Young, William P. Young, and William Paul Young.

2. Madeleine Albright

On most of her books she displays her name as above. For a select few of her older works she lists her name as Madeleine K. Albright and once she lists her name as Madeleine Korbel Albright

The librarian manual has the following to say about middle initials:

If an author uses his or her middle name or middle initial for their publications, then this should also be included in the author name. Initials should be followed by a period.

 Example:
 Jayne Ann Krentz
 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
 

However this does not address the case when sometimes they use their initial and sometimes not. However the librarian manual has the following to say about pseudonyms which looks like it might apply.

Some authors write or have written under multiple names. When editing or adding information for a book written by an author with multiple names, enter the author's name as it appears on the front cover as the primary author. The author's other names may be added in the other author fields. Additional author profiles may be linked directly from the About Me section on the author profile.

However these aren't pseudonyms but rather variations of the same name so it seems silly to make extra profiles for variations of an author's name.

If the author were a Goodreads author then the following might apply:

ALSO NOTE: If an author has a common name, they may choose to differentiate their names from other authors in the database in other ways. Acceptable options include:

 * inserting a middle initial or middle name
 * lengthening a first initial to a full first name

These minor changes are accepted practice for ease of maintaining accurate book lists on each author profile.

But neither of these authors own their Goodreads profile.

I would posit that these authors should be displayed as *most* of their books display them or as their most recent works display them as since that is presumably what they most currently prefer.

Am I missing a policy somewhere, is my logic incorrect somewhere? Is there an "unwritten" policy I'm not privy to? Please help me understand and make correct edits.

The general rule is that if the "most complete" name is ever used on a published book, it should be used on works that have a shorter version as well. It makes all the books searchable. So we should use Albright's middle name if it appears on any books.

However there are exceptions. We have comic book creator John Byrne under that name, even though one of his novels has his middle initial. Since he has a multitude of works without it and only one with, it was deemed (by a staff member) that the initialed name be added as a secondary to the novel.

For the Wm./William example above, we would use Wm. as the most common, and add other variations as secondary authors to the works concerned.

Personally I feel we should have Albright's middle initial as multiple works include it, and add her name with the middle name as secondary on the one work that has it.

I think there are a few contradictory statements here which give argument to all three versions of Madeline Albright's name:

So we should use Albright's middle name if it appears on any books.

This suggests that "Madeleine Korbel Albright" would be correct.

However there are exceptions. We have comic book creator John Byrne under that name, even though one of his novels has his middle initial. Since he has a multitude of works without it and only one with, it was deemed (by a staff member) that the initialed name be added as a secondary to the novel.

This exception seems to fit the Madeleine Albright case as well. The vast vast majority of her works use "Madeleine Albright". The only ones that don't are short policy pieces or journal articles rather than full length books.

Personally I feel we should have Albright's middle initial as multiple works include it, and add her name with the middle name as secondary on the one work that has it.

I actually see this as the only version that has no justification in either the librarian manual, the unwritten "use the longest name" rule, nor is it the author's most recent preference.

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For the Wm./William example above, we would use Wm. as the most common, and add other variations as secondary authors to the works concerned.

I would wholeheartedly agree with this take. However it looks as previous librarians went with the unwritten "use the longest name" rule and used "William Paul Young". I think the evidence of most of his books, his website, his Facebook, his Twitter all point toward "Wm. Paul Young". This rationale would also point toward "Madeleine Albright" being the correct variation if we use the logic consistently across both authors.

There are no contradictions. There is a general rule, but exceptions can be made. This is a decision that needs to be made by staff.

The problem with William vs. Wm. is that William does not include Wm. so it doesn't follow the "most complete" rule.

A discussion regarding Mr. Young was had here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The decision was made by a staff member.

> There are no contradictions. There is a general rule, but exceptions can be made. This is a decision that needs to be made by staff.

Except for the contradictions that I pointed out.

To reiterate, Madeline K. Albright is abides by neither the cover rule, the rule of the author's stated preference, nor the most complete. This post is to get clarity on what logic should librarians be applying to these situations. To just say "its an exception" with no rules or logic or reason behind it, makes little sense to me.

Sorry, but that's how it is. Sometimes staff has to make an exception on an individual basis. If Ms. Albright is concerning to you, I suggest contacting them for a definitive answer.

Where would I go about contacting staff for them to weigh in?

https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...

I have a similar problem.

As a reviewer, I have become a virtual friend with several authors and some of them have a recurring issue. They write under multiple variations of their name, In the past I have tried having a staff member bulk move books that have imported from Amazon to their Goodreads Author profile. I have also tried doing the books one at a time myself to move them. But unfortunately, if they are not consistant in their author name, the other profiles keep cropping up. I have added the duplicate names and cross referenced them.

I have had this issue with Kerry M. Olitzky and Ann D. Koffsky who both have books published with several variations of their names.

Even when they are consistant with the name, for genre, there is a problem.

Stephanie M. Wildman wrote law books in the past. now she writes children's books under the name Stephanie Wildman. When I advised her to try and claim that page too, she received an error message that she could not have more than one author page. So I had to make sure all the books were under both names.

Is there a way for an author who publishes with inconsistent name variations to claim more than one profile so that she can edit the names herself?

Authors can claim as many profiles as they like, but they need to use a different email/account for each.

Unfortunately the profile/name system on GR is not very complex. LIbraryThing has a way of linking pseudonyms under an umbrella name, so it is possible, but useful development on GR ended a long, long time ago.

Thank you for letting me know that the author simply needs to use a different email. That will help those prolific author's keep up with their profiles.